The Guardian

Checking in with Plum Organics, the Only B Corp Inside a Publicly Traded Compan Here’s how environmentally- and socially-minded baby-food maker Plum Organics is managing life inside Campbell’s

By: Marc Gunther

Date: 06/08/2014

Plum Organics, the leading brand of organic baby food and a unit of the Campbell Soup Company, has an impressive story to tell. As a certified B Corporation, Plum meets high standards for environmental and social performance. Its products are organic, its innovative packaging is lightweight (albeit not recyclable), its lowest-paid workers earn 50% above a so-called “living wage” and it gave away more than 1m pouches of food to needy children last year.

“Our mission is to get the very best food to kids,” says Neil Grimmer, Plum’s president and co-founder. “I have a goal of being in every lunchbox and high chair in America.” And more: Plum this fall plans to introduce its first product for adults, a collection of five-ounce snack pouches of blended fruits and vegetables branded as Plum VIDA. Sample flavors: cherry, berry, beet, and ginger.

So what’s not to like? To begin with, all that social and environmental goodness doesn’t come cheap. Plum’s products cost more than mainstream brands like Gerber, the No 1 seller of baby food. Then there’s the question of whether processed baby food is needed at all. (See my friend Erik Assadourian’s story, Making our own baby food.) Finally, Plum’s breakthrough innovation was the spouted pouch, which is convenient, but it enables babies to engage on-the-go eating, for better or worse.

Discover Plum Organics' complete line of organic baby foods including fruit puree, toddler snacks & more as well as information on the growth and development of healthy babies, portable baby food pouches and reviews.